How to make sure your emails don’t go unread

In a few days, my uncle would finish painting my half-painted house. I wrote him an intricate email explaining where he’d find the hidden key, where I’d stored the paint, which colours were for which areas, and how many coats of paint had been applied in some places. I smugly added informative headings, checked the formatting, felt pleased with myself, and hit ‘send’. I thought that was the end of it.

Paint pots. Image by Gideon / CC BY 2.0

I was surprised when he phoned me on the first day. He said, ‘Okay, Colleen, I’m here. Where’s the key?’ Cue the crushing feeling — he hadn’t read my email. Bother!

I should have called him in the first place. It would have saved a lot of time and effort.

I’d forgotten that a lot of people don’t like reading. A lot find it difficult. Some can’t.

Adult literacy in New Zealand isn’t what you might expect

According to a 2006 international study, 14 percent of us can’t read much at all. Thirty percent can manage only simple printed material (without pleasure — you won’t find these people reading novels in their spare time).

A decent 39.5 percent of Kiwis can cope with a range of printed material found in daily life and at work. These people might enjoy reading but tend to not understand as much as they think they do (they don’t score brilliantly in comprehension tests). Only 16.5 percent of us like reading, understand pretty much everything we read, and can make high-level inferences as we read.

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One response to “How to make sure your emails don’t go unread”

This is a great reminder, thanks, Colleen. Us keen readers tend to assume that everybody likes reading. How often have I emailed tradies with directions to my tricky-to-find flat. And how often have those emails been read? Never! I’ve always blamed them–but now I see that I’m to blame.